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Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform vs ServiceNow AI Control Tower
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Google Cloud platform to build, deploy, govern, and optimize AI agents
ServiceNow AI Control Tower
What ServiceNow calls a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI
Short answer
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform is Google Cloud’s platform to build, deploy, and govern agents; ServiceNow describes AI Control Tower as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI across an enterprise.Source 1, Source 2, Source 3 Agent Platform’s runtime is billed by use; AI Control Tower is included in ServiceNow’s Foundation, Advanced, and Prime tiers.Source 4, Source 5
Where each one sits
Six layers of running AI agents at a company, and what each product’s own public sources say it covers.
These aren’t the same kind of product
- Where they overlap
- Both keep a catalog of agents and MCP servers, can cut off an agent’s access, and keep audit logs.Source 3, Source 6, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9, Source 10
- Where they differ
- Teams can also build and run agents on Agent Platform.Source 1, Source 11 AI Control Tower’s connectors discover AI assets on external platforms; ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio builds agents.Source 12, Source 13
- Running both
- ServiceNow’s docs say its kill switch supports a Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform connector, for agents with unique identities only.Source 14
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
ServiceNow AI Control Tower
- Build agents: Not publicly documented
- Host and run agents: Not publicly documented
- Agents across organizations: Not publicly documented
At a glance
What each one is
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform is Google Cloud’s platform to build, deploy, and govern agents, an evolution of Vertex AI.Source 1, Source 2 Agent Registry catalogs agents, MCP servers, and tools; Agent Identity can give agents on supported runtimes an identity; and Agent Gateway checks traffic against policy.Source 6, Source 11, Source 15
ServiceNow AI Control Tower
ServiceNow describes AI Control Tower as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI across an enterprise, on the ServiceNow AI Platform.Source 3 ServiceNow says it inventories agents, models, and MCP servers from ServiceNow and third parties, tied to your CMDB.Source 3
The differences that matter
How far each inventory reaches
Gemini Enterprise Agent PlatformAgent Registry works per Google Cloud project; agents on supported runtimes can be registered automatically, but agents elsewhere or in other projects need manual registration.Source 29, Source 30, Source 31
ServiceNow AI Control TowerServiceNow says it auto-discovers agents, models, MCP servers, and datasets into one inventory tied to the CMDB; connectors you set up reach external platforms.Source 3, Source 12, Source 32
ServiceNow’s community documentation says only assets marked Managed get governance workflows, risk assessments, and monitoring.Source 21
Where access is enforced
Gemini Enterprise Agent PlatformBy default, an agent’s outbound connections through Agent Gateway are blocked unless an IAM access policy grants them, and deny rules override allow rules.Source 7, Source 11
ServiceNow AI Control TowerServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway lets agents connect only to approved, active MCP servers, with tool-level policies by role, department, or data classification.Source 16, Source 24
Google says Agent Gateway’s inbound mode supports only agents deployed in Agent Runtime; ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway supports only remotely hosted MCP servers.Source 11, Source 24
Where data is kept
Gemini Enterprise Agent PlatformAgent infrastructure features, including Agent Runtime and Agent Gateway, keep data at rest, such as session history, in the supported location you select.Source 33
ServiceNow AI Control TowerAI Control Tower requires moving data from your instance to a central ServiceNow environment, possibly in another region, and potentially to a third-party cloud.Source 34
Separately, ServiceNow has a regional data routing option that sends LLM and SLM requests to data centers in your region.Source 10
For security teams
What a security review asks, answered from each vendor’s public documentation.
Full comparison
18 criteria in five groups. Every cell links to its source, or says no public source answers it.
| Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform | ServiceNow AI Control Tower | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | ||
| What it is and who it’s for | Google Cloud platform to build, deploy, govern, and optimize AI agents, described as an evolution of Vertex AI, for developers and technical teams.Source 1, Source 2 | ServiceNow describes it as a central hub to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure AI across an enterprise, on the ServiceNow AI Platform.Source 3 |
| Maturity | Google announced it on 22 April 2026.Source 39 Registry and Gateway GA 18 June 2026.Source 26 Agent Identity is generally available; the Agent Identity API is in preview.Source 26 | ServiceNow announced general availability on 6 May 2025.Source 27 ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway became generally available on 10 September 2026.Source 28 |
| Control | ||
| Agent registry and discovery | Agent Registry: a per-project catalog of agents, MCP servers, and tools.Source 6, Source 29 Agents on supported runtimes can be registered automatically, others manually.Source 30, Source 31 | ServiceNow says it auto-discovers agents, models, MCP servers, and datasets into one inventory tied to the CMDB.Source 3 Connectors you set up reach external platforms.Source 12, Source 32 |
| Identity and access control | Agents on supported runtimes can have a SPIFFE-based identity.Source 15 Access policies link it to approved tools; other outbound gateway calls are blocked by default.Source 11 | ServiceNow’s community documentation says AI Gateway verifies agent identity and issues scoped, short-lived OAuth 2.1 tokens for MCP connections through it.Source 16 |
| Ownership, policy, and revocation | Allow and deny access policies (deny overrides allow), enforce and dry-run modes, and Model Armor filters.Source 7, Source 11 An agent owner field is not publicly documented. | The kill switch can contain a managed agent, revoking all of its active credentials across connected systems.Source 9, Source 14, Source 21 It covers ServiceNow and four connected platforms.Source 22 |
| Audit log and observability | Registry admin changes are audit-logged; reads only if Data Access logs are on.Source 8, Source 35 Gateway logs record access requests.Source 40 Traces need agents’ OpenTelemetry data.Source 41 | Audit logs show some workspace configuration changes.Source 10 Each kill-switch containment leaves an audit trail.Source 9 ServiceNow says metrics and traces monitor agents.Source 3 |
| Connection | ||
| How agents connect | Agent Gateway can govern calls into Runtime agents and out of them and the Gemini Enterprise app.Source 11 Outside agents can be registered by endpoint or agent card.Source 19 | ServiceNow’s community documentation says agents using AI Gateway call a ServiceNow-hosted URL instead of the MCP server, which must be remote.Source 17, Source 24 |
| Agents across organizations | Agent Runtime agents can call outside agents via Agent Gateway.Source 11 Other organizations’ IAM access to Runtime agents: not publicly documented. | Systems like Microsoft Agent 365 can discover publishable agents via an open API.Source 42 Bringing in agents another organization controls: not publicly documented. |
| Protocol support | Agent Registry catalogs MCP servers and A2A agents; Agent Gateway carries both.Source 11, Source 31, Source 43 A2A agents on Agent Runtime are in preview; ADK’s A2A support is experimental.Source 44, Source 45 | ServiceNow says it inventories MCP servers.Source 3 ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio can connect external agents over A2A.Source 46 |
| Frameworks, models, and clouds supported | Agent Development Kit or any open-source framework, with Gemini or other Model Garden models.Source 47 Agents hosted outside Google Cloud can be registered manually.Source 19 | ServiceNow says it inventories agents, models, and MCP servers from ServiceNow or third parties.Source 3 Its connector for Amazon covers Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.Source 20 |
| Operations | ||
| Deployment options and data residency | Agent Gateway is managed and regional.Source 48 Agent data at rest stays in a supported location you pick.Source 33 Self-hosting the registry or gateway: not publicly documented. | ServiceNow says it runs on the ServiceNow AI Platform.Source 3 Data goes to a central ServiceNow environment, possibly in another region or a third-party cloud.Source 34 |
| Compliance attestations | Google lists Agent Platform in scope for ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018, SOC 1, 2, and 3, and PCI DSS, and among products the Google Cloud HIPAA BAA includes.Source 36, Source 37 | ServiceNow says the company has an annual SOC 2 Type 2 attestation and ISO/IEC 42001 certification.Source 38 AI Control Tower’s coverage isn’t publicly documented. |
| Support and SLA | Google Cloud support packages, including 24/7 coverage.Source 49 An uptime SLA naming Agent Registry, Gateway, Identity, or Runtime is not publicly documented. | ServiceNow’s community documentation points to Now Support.Source 50 ServiceNow’s Customer Support Addendum states a 99.8% availability SLA for production instances.Source 51 |
| Time and effort to get running | A Google Cloud project with the Agent Registry API enabled, plus the Identity-Aware Proxy API for gateway policy.Source 29 Google recommends dry-run mode in staging.Source 7 | A Guided Setup widget on the home page walks through initial configuration.Source 52 Which features you can use depends on your license.Source 53 |
| Pricing model and public prices | Agent Registry is free; skill scanning is billed from January 2027.Source 23 Gateway egress: $0.085 per 15,000 requests; runtime: $0.085 a vCPU-hour.Source 4 Monthly free tier.Source 4 | Contact ServiceNow for pricing.Source 3 ServiceNow’s community documentation says usage-based costs may apply.Source 24, Source 25 Fully managing external AI needs a separate license.Source 5 |
| Building | ||
| Agent building tools | Agent Studio (low-code canvas), the open-source Agent Development Kit, and Agent Garden prebuilt agents and templates.Source 1, Source 47 A Managed Agents API is in preview.Source 1 | ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio creates, configures, and deploys agents.Source 18 Creating new custom agents is supported only in the Prime tier.Source 5 |
| Model access | Google says Model Garden offers more than 200 models, including Gemini, third-party models such as Anthropic’s Claude, and open-source models.Source 1, Source 39 | AI model provider settings cover ServiceNow-supported providers, such as Now LLM Service, and providers your organization configures.Source 10 |
| Integrations and ecosystem | Agents in Agent Registry can be made available to users of the Gemini Enterprise app.Source 48 Google’s own remote MCP servers are registered automatically.Source 43 | ServiceNow’s community documentation says discovery connectors come from the Store or are custom-built, and lists Databricks, Snowflake, and Hugging Face.Source 21, Source 50 |
Which to choose
Choose Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform if
- You want to build, deploy, and govern agents on one platform, with Agent Studio and the open-source Agent Development Kit.Source 1, Source 47
- Your agents run on Google Cloud, where agents on supported runtimes, such as Google Kubernetes Engine, can be registered automatically.Source 30, Source 31
- You want Agent Gateway to block outbound connections unless an IAM policy grants them, with Model Armor scanning prompts and tool responses.Source 11
- You need agent data at rest, such as session history and memory bank entries, kept in a supported location you select.Source 33
Choose ServiceNow AI Control Tower if
- You run ServiceNow on a Foundation, Advanced, or Prime tier: each includes AI Control Tower, which ties AI assets to your CMDB.Source 3, Source 5
- You want one inventory of AI agents, models, and MCP servers across platforms, with connectors that discover AI assets outside ServiceNow.Source 3, Source 12
- You want a kill switch that revokes all active credentials of a managed agent on connected platforms, with an audit trail.Source 9, Source 14
- You want AI compliance content: ServiceNow’s pack covers the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and California and Colorado AI laws.Source 54
Questions buyers ask
Can ServiceNow AI Control Tower govern agents on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform?
How is each one priced?
Agent Registry is free; skill scanning is billed from January 2027.Source 23 Agent Runtime is billed by vCPU and memory hours; Agent Gateway egress, $0.085 per 15,000 requests.Source 4 ServiceNow’s tiers include AI Control Tower; contact ServiceNow for pricing.Source 3, Source 5 Its community documentation says usage-based costs may apply.Source 24, Source 25
Do they support MCP and A2A?
Agent Registry catalogs MCP servers and A2A agents, and Agent Gateway carries MCP and A2A traffic; A2A agents on Agent Runtime are in preview.Source 11, Source 31, Source 43, Source 44 AI Control Tower inventories MCP servers, and ServiceNow’s separate AI Agent Studio can connect external agents over A2A.Source 3, Source 46
Can either one connect agents across organizations?
Agent Runtime agents can call outside agents through Agent Gateway.Source 11 ServiceNow’s External Registries API lets any third-party system, such as Microsoft Agent 365, retrieve agents marked publishable.Source 42 For both, bringing in another organization’s agents with access that organization controls is not publicly documented.
How we compare
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Sources
61 public sources, each with the date we checked it. Every one opens in a new tab.
Source 2: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) Back:abc
Source 3: AI Control Tower - ServiceNow (product page) Back:abcdefghijklmnopqr
Source 4: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform pricing Back:abcde
Source 5: ServiceNow product tiers (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefg
Source 9: AI agent containment using kill switch protocol manually (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefg
Source 10: AI model providers (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcde
Source 12: Discovering AI assets through connectors (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcde
Source 13: AI Agents - ServiceNow (product page) Back to text
Source 14: Configure AI agent containment using kill switch protocol manually (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abcdefg
Source 16: What's new in AI Gateway v3.4 - September 2026 release (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcd
Source 17: AI Gateway Implementation Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abc
Source 18: AI Agent Studio (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 20: AI Service Graph Connector for Amazon release notes (ServiceNow Store version history) Back:ab
Source 21: AI Control Tower: What's new in the June 2026 release (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcde
Source 22: Control enforcement points (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 24: AI Gateway FAQ (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abcdefg
Source 25: AI Control Tower Observability & Monitoring FAQ (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:abc
Source 26: Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform release notes Back:abcd
Source 27: ServiceNow Launches AI Control Tower, a Centralized Command Center to Govern, Manage, Secure, and Realize Value From Any AI Agent, Model, and Workflow (ServiceNow news release, investor relations PDF) Back:ab
Source 28: What's new in AI Control Tower for August & September 2026 (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:ab
Source 32: Configuring connectors (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:abc
Source 33: Supported locations for agents in Agent Platform Back:abc
Source 34: AI Control Tower (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 36: Google Cloud Platform Services in Scope by Compliance Program Back:ab
Source 39: Introducing Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, powering the next wave of agents Back:ab
Source 40: Monitor traffic through Agent Gateway Back to text
Source 42: External Registries (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 46: Integrating external AI agents (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back:ab
Source 47: Build with Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform Back:abc
Source 50: AI Control Tower Welcome Guide (ServiceNow Community, AI Control Tower articles) Back:ab
Source 51: Customer Support Addendum (ServiceNow legal schedules, Version 12MAR2025) Back to text
Source 52: AI Control Tower release notes (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 53: Activating AI Control Tower (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release) Back to text
Source 54: AI Risk and Compliance Content Pack (ServiceNow product documentation, Australia release, Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Back to text